{"id":36476,"date":"2013-09-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/how-remote-work-and-the-cloud-deliver-big-business-benefits\/"},"modified":"2025-03-13T08:49:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T15:49:19","slug":"how-remote-work-and-the-cloud-deliver-big-business-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/us\/en\/blog\/how-remote-work-and-the-cloud-deliver-big-business-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"How Remote Work and the Cloud Deliver Big Business Benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RC_RemoteWorking_Infographic_Motive_09_05_13Yahoo made headlines this year by imposing a telecommuting ban. The move opened a national dialogue about working remotely – one that demonstrated (Yahoo notwithstanding) just how prevalent remote work has become.<\/p>\n

Best Buy, British Telecom, and Dow Chemical have found that their remote employees are between 35 and 40 percent more productive than their office-bound counterparts. Third-party research has borne this out, as well.<\/p>\n

And productivity gains – discussed in more detail below – are just the tip of the iceberg. What follows are some additional reasons to put telecommuting to work in your business.<\/p>\n

Improved Employee Satisfaction, Reduced Sick Days<\/b><\/p>\n

Research shows that 36 percent of people would rather work remotely than get a raise. A similar proportion would even take a pay cut<\/i> of 10 percent if it meant they could work from home.<\/p>\n

Of course, employee satisfaction can manifest itself in many different forms, none more so than absences. More than 70 percent of employees who take sick days aren\u2019t actually sick but are taking time off due to personal issues. People who can work from home with the help of cloud applications would have more flexibility to manage these issues, and as a result would not need to call in \u201cfake\u201d sick days.<\/p>\n

With absences costing the US economy $576 billion annually, there are substantial savings to be realized by making flex time an option. The American Management Association actually managed to reduce employee absences by 63 percent after it adopted home working practices.<\/p>\n

Increased Employee Productivity<\/b><\/p>\n

Statistics gathered by the\u00a0Telework Research Network<\/a>\u00a0suggest that distraction in the workplace can cost businesses $600 billion a year. Sun Microsystems, meanwhile, found that employees working at home use 60 percent of the time they would have spent commuting actually doing work. And AT&T says that it gets five hours more work per week from its home workers than those in the office.<\/p>\n

A Chinese company conducted an experiment to see if remote work and productivity gains could be correlated. Ctrip, hoping to save money on real estate in Shanghai, asked half its employees to work remotely, whilst the remainder came into the office. The results showed that the home workers who were using cloud-based applications and remote access technology were actually 13 percent more productive than those who remained in the office.<\/p>\n

Stanford economist Nick Bloom says that there is a very real reason behind increased productivity when working from home:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the office, it\u2019s very noisy; you can hear the guy next to you on the phone or the person across the desk crying because their boyfriend has just split up with them. It\u2019s horribly distracting.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Reduced Costs<\/b><\/p>\n

By letting employees work remotely, companies can enjoy huge cost savings:<\/p>\n